Rangers’ Fielder scheduled for season-ending surgery

(Reuters) – Power-hitting first baseman Prince Fielder of the Texas Rangers is scheduled to have season-ending surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck, the American League team said on Thursday.

Fielder, acquired last November in a trade with the Detroit Tigers for All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler, will get a second opinion before going ahead with the procedure, Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels said on a conference call according to a report on Major League Baseball’s website.

The burly Fielder has missed the last five games because of the problem, and has been complaining since last month of pain and stiffness in the neck and recently of weakening in his left arm.

He was initially given oral medication, but that did not fix the problem. Fielder had an injection last Friday that the Rangers hoped would be the solution.

“It’s a situation where there wasn’t anything he could do about it,” manager Ron Washington told reporters in Detroit, where the teams are playing while Fielder remained in Texas. “If he could, he would be here.”

Fielder, an iron man who missed just one game in the last five MLB campaigns before this season, is batting .247 with three home runs and 16 runs batted in and played in 42 games for the Rangers (23-24) this season.